Preview Japan vs USA - ANW5 NBC Special

Finally after a 7 month wait we finally are getting to see the Japan vs. USA special.  For those who are confused when this happened.. it was the Final day (Sunday) of the Las Vegas taping of American Ninja Warrior 5 back in June 23, 2013.  The final night was a Japan vs. USA match up. I did a blog with a small biography of the Japan team for the benefit those who don't recognize some of the competitors since the USA has not legally seen Sasuke Rising... (Blame NBC for that..)

Team USA

James McGrath, Brent Steffensen, Brian Arnold, Paul Kasemir and Travis Rosen

Officially airing on Monday on NBC, we finally get a 2 hour event showcasing 5 of Japan's best along with 5 of the USA's best from the American Ninja Warrior 5 event that ran all summer on NBC.  And for those bitching that Nagano wasn't there.. he was at home caring for his wife and new baby son since Taiou was born premature.  Having Shingo there instead though is friggin' awesome since he's never been invited to these things before and had it not been for the Backstream in Sasuke 29.. well I'll leave it there.

Lining up for photos before the event starts - Youtube

I love stuff like this.. Found this on Youtube where they were lining up for both photos and of course the ever-important lineup shots for the television production.  I geek out over these things so bear with me.  I laughed that they were told in English what do to.. it would be great if they UNDERSTOOD English but they don't.. maybe Shingo but I'm digressing. I'm sure the ANW guys will remind me that this happened to them in Japan so fair is fair. Yeah yeah I got it.

Shin Sedai (新世代) literally "New Generation" Star Hitoshi Kanno菅野仁志

Seems NBC finally got around to actually promoting this show. (about damn time) Most people didn't even know when it was going to air and they didn't show any promotional video until now.  Seems end of the week was fine with them as they then did a huge media dump that included a press release and videos. I found out that all of the NBC videos were region blocked so no one in Japan could see the videos. I then found a website (thank you Stars Entertainment) that had hosted some of the videos that were then viewable to those in Japan.  It included a preview of the course and (spoiler) the majority of Hitoshi's First stage run.

His name is Yuuto 雄仁 ©Hitoshi Kanno

Speaking of Hitoshi Kanno, he's a new Dad! Yuuto (Kanji: 雄仁  Hiragana: ゆうと) was born on November 18, 2013 and weighed in at 2340 grams (that's 5.2 lbs)! As seen above he was all dressed up for Christmas! It's rumored he got married to Emiko but I won't believe it unless I have photos!

Hitoshi feeding his son Yuuto ©Hitoshi Kanno

So I had to share because of my obsession with these things.. This was a more tame photo as we saw one earlier of him drinking beer while he fed the baby milk.. ahahahha  Either way his baby is uber cute!  Just had to share since he's heavily featured in this NBC promotional video.

Thanks to Stars Entertainment I can screencap the promotional video.  This is the closest thing I'll ever get to a Sasuke Navi so here we go!  The event was a 4 stage course. And again.. it's Midoriyama.. Mount is already part of the name.. you shouldn't call it Mount Mount Green.  Wow I'm digressing already on the first screencap.

This is the 2nd stage. I have to look up the names of these obstacles because frankly I didn't watch ANW5 (or ANW4, or 3, or never mind).. I don't like NBC's production (I find it boring and heavily cheesy in presentation and frankly a lot of the non-Sasuke fan competitors are annoying and the yelling of the money every five seconds didn't help either) so I'll have to do my homework for Monday's broadcast.  Yay...

And this is Stage 3's fly by.  According to the rules this will be a one on one event going through the first 3 stages. (more on that later)

If there is a tie in points by the end of the 3rd stage then they use the final tower to break the tie.  It's 100 feet in height.

 (who the hell is) James McGrath vs. Sasuke All-star Shingo Yamamoto山本進悟

Apparently the video was from during the event.. (cough - notice the score) but this should help with the stupid scoring system.  I'm not a big fan of points systems. Sasuke wasn't like this so this is foreign to me and I don't like it. Personal preference obviously.

And another look at the trophy.  Whoever is the winner in points after the whole event gets bragging rights and a trophy.  I heard there's money too but it wasn't brought up in the promotional video. We'll see if they mention it later when it airs on Monday.

 Shin Sedai (新世代) literally "New Generation" Star Hitoshi Kanno菅野仁志

So we start after Paul Kasemir already went.. and at least they featured a Japan run. Shocking if you ask me.. but that's what I'm here for anyway!  GO SASUKE!

 Ryo and Yuuji watching on

Yay reaction shots!  This is Ryo on the left (pre-surgery - that's a long story.. he had surgery recently and is on the mend for a scary situation with 気胸 - Pneumothorax). This was in June of last year so it was before his Backstream training that caused the issues.  Yuuji as usual looks perplexed.

Okay okay.. I checked video for this.. These are the "Timbers".. which is a bastardized version of Sasuke 23's Jūnidantobi (十二段跳び) which means 12 steps but G4 named Twelve Timbers for the Ninja Warrior broadcast. So, because there aren't twelve and they are married to the horrible name.. they just called it the Timbers.

Hitoshi demonstrating the "Giant Cycle" which is new to Ninja Warrior in General.  Cycle of course short for bicycle since it has a wheel.

And because NBC wasn't told of the horrible injuries on the Rope Gliderロープグライダー from Sasuke 18..  (including someone put in traction..) here it is in ANW5.  Hope no one was injured on it this time around.

From left to right Yuuji, Ryo (standing up), Shingo and Asa all chiming in support as Kanno is doing well in Stage 1 for Team Japan.

Kanno doing well landing on the very colorful Jumping Spider ジャンピングスパイダー  with a good time already on the clock.

.. what's wrong with this picture?  The warped wall that isn't.. warped.. it's FLAT!  Digressing again.. anyway this is the Warped Wall (in Japan it's known as the Soritatsu Kabe そり立つ壁) with a very non-warped bottom.. (chuckles)

Asa is now standing up.  Ryo is standing higher so he can see!  Team Japan (except for a very sedate Yuuji) is cheering on Kanno.  I'm saving the brace on Asa's leg for the broadcast.

Anyway he catches the top of the wall on the first try... and that's where the video stops.  You'll have to tune in on Monday to see how much further he got.  I'll be blogging on this when I get a video to screenshot.